June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kellogg Co. doesn’t have to worry
about staff at its U.K. headquarters staying away from work or
sneaking out of the office when England plays its potentially
decisive World Cup game against Slovenia next week.

When the match kicks off at 3 p.m. local time on June 23,
the 660 employees at Kellogg’s base in Manchester, northwest
England, will be allowed into the building atrium to watch the
team’s attempt to qualify for the tournament’s latter stages.

“It’s fantastic that we are being able to watch it from
work,” said Louise Davies, assistant communications manager for
the cereal maker. “It’s hard to imagine that with a big crowd,
employees won’t want to join in to watch the match.”

With many World Cup games taking place during working
hours, European companies must decide whether to make provisions
for staff wanting to follow their team. Those that don’t risk
absenteeism or clogged Internet networks as workers log on to
live streams of the games. The cost to U.K. businesses in terms
of lost working hours may reach 1 billion pounds ($1.48
billion), according to the Chartered Management Institute.

Fiat SpA, Italy’s biggest carmaker, can get as many as 500
medical notes from employees on the day of an important soccer
match, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s office in London has a small
auditorium available to allow its employees to watch certain
games of the World Cup and has screens in the background across
dealing rooms. It’s raising money for the Alzheimers Society by
selling flags to employees supporting their individual teams.

Accommodating Requests

“There is huge goodwill, both in terms of employee
engagement and in productivity, to be gained from accommodating
flexible working requests or allowing staff to take a couple of
hours out to watch the games,” said Michael Rendell, leader of
human resource services at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage, has made
arrangements for employees throughout Europe to watch the World
Cup matches either via the Internet at their desks or on large
screens in separate rooms.

“Our employees work hard and manage their time effectively
so the management are happy to make provisions for people to
watch the games over the coming weeks,” the firm said.

According to a survey conducted in April by YouGov and
Telegent Systems, 38 percent of employees in England would be
prepared to skip work to watch the soccer. Of 2,463 people
interviewed online, 48 percent said allowing staff to watch
games at work would have the most positive impact on morale.

Flexible Shifts

J Sainsbury Plc, the U.K.’s third-largest supermarket
chain, is allowing workers to book time off, swap shifts, start
or finish earlier and time their breaks to coincide with kick-offs. QAS Ltd., a unit of credit-checking company Experian Plc,
sent an e-mail to staff before the start of the World Cup asking
them to nominate a team which they would be allowed to watch at
local pubs.

“We obviously have to make sure we haven’t got an
important meeting when out of the office, and need to make up
the time later, so it works well for us and the company,” said
Nick Moodie, who works at QAS and watched New Zealand play
Slovakia this week at the Frog pub in Clapham, south London.

A study of 1,000 British workers commissioned by
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP showed that 53 percent of male
employees and 21 percent of females aimed to watch World Cup
matches during office hours. About 5 percent planned to watch
without their employers’ permission or call in sick.

Clogging Networks

Businesses that fail to make adequate provisions for their
staff to watch games may find that the performance of their
Internet network slows as employees log on to live streams, said
Scott Morrison, an Antibes-based vice president at Gartner Inc.

“Organizations have to maintain the threat that if network
performance is affected too much they will block streaming
traffic and that’s certainly the approach many organizations we
are speaking to are taking,” Morrison said.

In Germany, employees of sports goods makers Adidas AG and
Puma AG will get to see the matches. At Adidas’s Herzogenaurach
headquarters, televisions have been installed in the stadium-like exhibition center and the “Stripes” canteen, spokeswoman
Katja Schreiber said. Puma has set up projector screens in its
canteens, according to spokeswoman Kerstin Neuber.

Infineon Technologies AG, Europe’s second-largest
chipmaker, is arranging public viewing of today’s lunchtime game
between Germany and Serbia in the staff canteen, spokesman
Christian Hoenicke said. SAP AG, the world’s biggest maker of
business-management software, is showing all matches on a big
screen at its Walldorf, Germany, headquarters and two nearby
locations, according to spokeswoman Angelika Pfahler.

At ING Groep NV, the Netherlands’ biggest financial-services firm and a sponsor of the Dutch team, employees at some
locations have to pay an entrance fee to see games that goes to
ING’s and Unicef’s charity program “Chances for Children.”

“Every business around the world has to make its own
arrangements,” said ING spokesman Frans Middendorff. “Several
ING offices in the Netherlands facilitate watching games by the
Dutch team, work permitting and after management approval.”

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will convert an atrium at
its London office into a soccer field with giant screens to
entertain bankers and clients during the World Cup. RBS will
invite as many as 3,000 investment banking clients to watch the
matches, according to an e-mail to employees earlier this month.

“With a canopy covering the space, an indoor pitch and
giant screens it promises to be a great venue to watch the
games,” the bank said.